1) Dr. Sara appeals to us all to write our congresspeople about how ridiculously lame we find it that we as Americans abroad are expected to pay taxes in two countries. Pretty much every other government in the world has figured out that this is a lame way to treat expats; hopefully this proposed bill will straighten things out. By the way, your congresspeople are the representatives from the last state in which you legally resided in the US. You can vote for them (or against them), so that means they have to listen to you. Ha!
2) The US government may see us as double-tax-paying suckers, but at least the Democratic party loves us. Democrats Anonymous Abroad is sending 22 delegates to the DNC, and if you register on the Democrats Abroad website by January 31st (ie, tomorrow), you too can take part in the primary voting. You can also register to receive your absentee ballots for any and all upcoming elections using their handy Vote From Abroad wizard.
OK, back to my usual posture of closing my eyes, plugging my ears, and singing LALALALALA whenever US politics comes up.
Wish I had those resources when we were overseas. Now that we’re back at least I know who my congressman is…looks like it’s time for a note. 🙂
Do you guys have to figure out your own taxes or does someone do all that for you?
Thanks for your support, Meika! 🙂
Depending on who we’re employed by in any given year, sometimes we have had to work out our own taxes, and sometimes we’ve had fancy company-paid accountants to do it for us.
We were advised a few years ago to only vote in national elections. The accountant/attorney who told us this gave the reason that if we voted in a primary or Illinois state election we could POTENTIALLY have to pay Illinois state tax. The last thing I’d want to do is pay Illinois state tax on top of Swiss tax and U.S. Federal tax.